Pod Insights Scamfluencers ENCORE: Lance Armstrong: Tour De Fraud | 218 About this episode We’ll be back next week with new episodes. In the meantime, in honor of next month’s Tour de France, we’re revisiting one of the most infamous sports scandals of the early 2000s:
Lance Armstrong’s determination to win helps him survive cancer and become cycling’s biggest star in the early 2000s. But his ruthless desire to be the best leads him to create a secret cheating scheme. It fuels him to a historic Tour de France winning streak—but requires an elaborate cover-up that includes bullying anyone who tries to expose him, even his teammates. After he’s exposed and falls from grace, his pride and stubbornness makes his apology tour feel more like backpedaling to save his reputation.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Sarah Hagi? Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.
0:08 Scaachi Koul? We'll be back next week with an all-new episode of Scamfluencers, but with the Tour de France kicking off July 4th in Barcelona, we thought it was the perfect time to take another look at cycling's greatest fraud, Lance Armstrong.
0:22 Sarah Hagi? When we first covered Lance, we told the story of how he was part of what investigators called, quote, "the most sophisticated, professionalized, and successful doping program that sport has ever seen," and how Lance bullied anyone who tried to expose him. Now Hollywood has come calling again.
0:40 Scaachi Koul? In February, Apple won a bidding war for a new Lance Armstrong biopic starring Austin Butler and directed by Edward Berger, who recently made Conclave. Multiple studios were fighting over the package, which shows just how compelling this story still is.
0:54 Sarah Hagi? This movie also marks the first time Lance has authorized anyone telling his story on screen. His former team director, Johann Brunel, said the film will finally give them a chance to, quote, "tell our side of the story," which is a pretty bold claim from two guys who spent a decade lying to everyone.
1:12 Scaachi Koul? So with the tour about to start and a major film on the way, we're revisiting the story of Lance Armstrong, the champion who doped his way to seven titles and still seems to think that he's the victim.
1:30 Scaachi Koul? Sarah, as a mid-range millennial, I know that you remember those Live Strong bracelets.
1:37 Sarah Hagi? I remember so many kids on the school bus having a Live Strong bracelet and it just being like, what is going on here? It really was so everywhere. Like, if you weren't there, you do not understand.
1:51 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, it's hard to quantify. But you didn't even have one of, like, the knockoff ones that said- I heart boobs. That was supposed to be for breast cancer, but nobody actually knew where that money was going.
2:01 Sarah Hagi? I know. You know what? I'd never had any of them. I had like really thin wrists that like it would just like emphasize how weak I looked, I guess. I don't know.
2:11 Scaachi Koul? What a flex. You're so delicate. You can't wear this clunky piece of jewelry.
2:16 Sarah Hagi? They were just too heavy for me. I'm just one of those girls.
2:18 Scaachi Koul? OK, sounds tough. Well, Sarah, today I'm going to bring you back to the very reason we had so many of those ugly, cheap, landfill, destined jelly bracelets. And somehow, it has to do with Sheryl Crow.
2:35 Scaachi Koul? It's January 2013, and Lance Armstrong is in Austin, Texas. He's got a short crew cut and a chiseled, classically handsome face. He's sitting in a brown leather chair, surrounded by cameras in a nondescript hotel room. The 41-year-old is used to being in the spotlight. He's a superstar cyclist with a record-breaking seven Tour de France wins. But he's not holding a trophy today or wearing one of the signature yellow jerseys given to the race's winner. Instead, Lance is in a blue blazer and slacks, and he's directing an icy stare at the person interviewing him, Oprah Winfrey. The last time Lance spoke to Oprah was eight years ago. He was promoting his cancer charity, Liv Strong, and he was there with his girlfriend at the time, Sheryl Crow.
3:19 Scaachi Koul? But Oprah has a different focus this time around. She asks him a very direct question.
3:24 Speaker 02 Yes or no? Did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance?
3:29 Speaker 03 Yes.
3:30 Scaachi Koul? For the next two and a half hours, Lance admits to using a long list of banned substances and doping methods in all seven of his Tour de France victories. People suspected him of cheating for years, but this is the first time he's publicly admitted to it. Oprah's questions aren't just about doping. She also asks about Lance intimidating and bullying people into keeping it a secret. She brings up a woman who tried to blow the whistle on Lance about a decade earlier. At the time, he responded by calling her a whore and then suing her for libel. In this interview, when he tries to apologize, Oprah presses him.
4:06 Speaker 02 You sued her?
4:09 Speaker 03 To be honest, Oprah, we sued so many people, I don't even, I'm sure we did.
4:15 Sarah Hagi? Honestly, Oprah, like, who haven't I sued? You know? That is a crazy thing to say to Oprah of all people, like, on that national platform.
4:24 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, and he also looks visibly uncomfortable. Maybe because even in his confession, he is still lying. He tells Oprah that he stopped juicing after 2005, but the United States Anti-Doping Agency says that's not true. And he claims he never forced his teammates to cheat, despite nearly a dozen of them testifying otherwise. But Lance's drive to succeed went far beyond what other cyclists were doing, and his scamming almost put the brakes on an entire sport.
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5:13 Speaker 05 I'm Candace DeLong, host of the podcast Killer Psyche. In our latest episode, we go inside the case of Lindsay Clancy, the postpartum psychosis defense, and the stunning mistrial that just reignited a national debate. Listen to Killer Psyche on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts.
5:37 Scaachi Koul? From Wondery, I'm Sachi Cole.
5:38 Speaker 06 And I'm Sarah Haggie.
5:40 Scaachi Koul? And this is Scamfluencers.
5:50 Scaachi Koul? Lance Armstrong was one of the biggest sports celebrities of the early 2000s. His massive success helped bring cycling to a wider audience, especially in the US. His total dominance was framed as an inspiring tale of a cancer survivor beating the odds. But the ruthless ambition that made him a cycling superstar also drove him to win at any cost. You might think you know the story, but it's so much worse than just a case of doping. And while he says he feels remorse, it's hard not to think he's just trying to backpedal to save his reputation. This is Lance Armstrong: Tour de Fraud.
6:28 Scaachi Koul? Before Lance Armstrong became the world's most notorious cyclist, he's a kid growing up near Dallas in the mid-'70s. Lance's mom was just 17 when she had him, and she and his dad quickly got divorced. Things are hard, but Lance's mom loves and supports him unconditionally. When Lance is three, his mom marries a new man, Terry Armstrong. Terry is a strict, drill-instructor type, and Lance hates him. He later says that something as small as leaving a drawer open could be enough for his stepdad to beat him with a fraternity paddle. When Lance is still a child, he starts competing in swimming and cycling, and Terry becomes even more intense. Terry later tells The Guardian about a time that nine-year-old Lance fell off of his bike in the middle of a race.
7:14 Scaachi Koul? Terry says he told Lance, quote, "If you're gonna come out here and quit and cry, we're done. I'm not gonna have a quitter." Anger and spite become powerful motivators for Lance. When Terry bosses Lance around, Lance tells him, "You're not my dad." And later, Lance will say the same thing to his coaches. At 15, Lance wants to start competing in triathlons, but most races have a minimum age of 16 for insurance purposes. So Lance and his mom forge his birth certificate, and even though he's so much younger than the competition, he smokes everyone. After just a couple of years, Lance catches the attention of USA Cycling, the group that oversees the sport. In 1991, he joins a team sponsored by Motorola.
7:57 Scaachi Koul? And a year later, at 20, Lance competes at the Barcelona Olympics. He's hot stuff in America, but his new European rivals are in a whole other league. He ends up finishing 14th.
8:10 Scaachi Koul? Lance is embarrassed by his Olympics performance, and he feels like he has something to prove. So in the summer of 1993, he sets out to win the Thrift Drug Triple Crown, a trio of cycling events held in the US. Any rider who can win all three races will get a $1 million grand prize. Lance wins the first two races, setting him up for a massive payday if he can win the third and final race. He doesn't want to leave it to chance, so he meets up with the captain of the rival team most likely to beat him. They sit down in a hotel room and Lance lays out a deal. If the rival team agrees to let him win, Lance will give them $50,000 of his $1 million in winnings. And since they weren't in the running for the $1 million in the first place,
8:55 Scaachi Koul? that sounds pretty good to them.
8:58 Sarah Hagi? This is so far the second bit of fraud I'm hearing about Lance Armstrong from changing his birth certificate to then doing this.
9:07 Scaachi Koul? I know it's a lot of lying so early on. And on the day of the final race, Lance manages to get a comfortable lead. His biggest competitor, an Italian racer, makes a run for it. But it's all for show. The racer eases up and Lance coasts to victory. After the race, Lance finds the Italian racer at the hotel. He hands the guy a cake box filled with $100,000 in cash, even more money than he promised. And he says, "Merry Christmas." Lance is already willing to do anything to win. But as he starts competing more overseas, he'll be racing against people he can't just buy off. And soon, his commitment to cycling dominance will be put to the test.
9:50 Scaachi Koul? Over the next two years, Lance mostly keeps his winning streak going. He takes first place in a few races around Europe. He even wins a stage in the Tour de France, which means that he came in first on one of the days of the week's long race. He's starting to become well-known amongst hardcore cycling enthusiasts and already starting to take stuff like cortisone and testosterone. Both are illegal in pro cycling, but most athletes take them anyway. Actually, people have been taking substances to get ahead as long as the Tour de France has been around. When the race started in 1903, its competitors were mostly blue-collar factory workers and amateurs looking for a cash reward. To endure the grueling distances and cope with the pain, they'd get drunk, drink dangerous stimulants, and sniff ether-soaked handkerchiefs.
10:35 Sarah Hagi? You know what? I just kind of assume in the past, before they really knew the long-term effects of drugs, that people were just doing this all the time.
10:43 Scaachi Koul? I would be gacked out of my mind if I was alive during 1903 and people Were huffing substances, I would be zooted all day.
10:52 Sarah Hagi? All day? Are you kidding me?
10:54 Scaachi Koul? Well, now, there are more sophisticated substances on hand, ones that will actually help you compete. Lance moves to Cuomo, Italy, where the team trains in challenging, high-altitude conditions. But despite using enhancements, Lance's team keeps losing, and he starts taking his frustration out on everyone around him. One night, he's out with a teammate and the teammate's girlfriend at a small restaurant. They're waiting for their wine and pizza, but Lance is burning with impatience. He thinks his order is taking too long. So he says, quote, "These fucking Italians, can't they bring the fucking wine?" But Lance is desperate to get back to winning. So when he finds out about EPO through the grapevine, Lance thinks he's hit the jackpot.
11:39 Scaachi Koul? EPO is an anti-anemia drug. It's meant to increase your body's red blood cell count, which allows you to exert yourself longer than you normally would. And unlike the drugs that Lance has been taking, there's no way to test for it at this time. Then, in late 1995, Lance learns that a teammate of his is working with an Italian doctor named Michele Ferrari, no relation to the sports car family. Michele is an unassuming man in his early 40s with black hair and thick glasses. He's a legit doctor and sports medicine expert. But he's known in cycling circles for his off-book EPO specialty. Michele operates in secret. Instead of a traditional office, he works out of a beat-up station wagon. Players usually pay him a percentage of their earnings out of pocket in order to avoid scrutiny.
12:26 Scaachi Koul? Lance is intrigued, and soon after meeting with him, he decides that Michele is a genius. Lance agrees to go on a personalized EPO program and starts paying Michele tens of thousands of dollars a month. At the beginning of 1996, Lance is the top-ranked cyclist in the world, so he can afford the treatment. And maybe that's why, even though Lance lived with a teammate when he moved to Cuomo, he's now in a beautiful house on the lake all by himself, while his other teammates crowd into an apartment together. Soon enough, Lance's doping gets results. In 1996, he racks up a few big wins in Europe, including becoming the first, and to this day, the only American to win a prestigious 200-kilometer race in Belgium.
13:09 Scaachi Koul? But he gets sick with bronchitis and has to drop out of the Tour de France. He still competes in the Olympics, and he signs an endorsement deal with Nike. Lance's EPO habit has given a critical boost to his cycling career. He's confident that Michaela's treatment is exactly what he needed. But soon Lance will have far greater problems.
13:30 Scaachi Koul? It's late October in 1996, and Betsy Kramer stands in a conference room at a hospital in Indiana. She's here with her fiance Frankie Andreu to visit Lance. Betsy is a feisty brunette from Michigan with a thick Midwestern accent. Her fiance Frankie is a boyishly handsome, brown-haired cyclist on Lance's team. The three of them are all friends. Frankie and Betsy are two of the only people who can be honest with Lance. And while he normally has pretty thin skin, he appreciates that they call him out on his crap. But now, Betsy is too worried about her friend to argue with him. Lance is in the hospital recovering from brain surgery. After dropping out of the Tour de France, he started having pain in one of his testicles.
14:11 Scaachi Koul? Betsy heard that Lance didn't go to the doctor until one of his balls swelled up to the size of a lemon. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which had already spread to his chest and his brain. He started chemotherapy and had surgery to remove his brain tumors.
14:27 Sarah Hagi? I knew he had cancer, but I didn't know it was that severe.
14:31 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, well Lance is pale and bald. He doesn't even have eyebrows. Two doctors start asking Lance questions about his medical history. Betsy suggests that they should all leave the room to give Lance and his doctors some privacy. But Lance says it's fine, and he goes on to reveal some disturbing information. When the doctors ask if he has ever used performance-enhancing drugs, Lance matter-of-factly responds, "Yes." He lists everything he's been on, including EPO, cortisone, testosterone, human growth hormone, and steroids. Betsy is shocked. She makes Frankie leave the room with her. And in the hallway, she tells him, quote, "I'm not fucking marrying you." If you're doing this shit, that's how he got cancer.
15:16 Sarah Hagi? That was honestly the first thing that came into my mind, hearing about a lot of this.
15:21 Scaachi Koul? Yeah.
15:21 Sarah Hagi? I don't know what these drugs necessarily do long term, but they're obviously manipulating his body in a way that is not natural to him.
15:29 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, and for what it's worth, lots of people suspect that there is a connection between the drugs and Lance's cancer. But there's no conclusive evidence that one caused the other. Frankie tells Betsy he isn't doing the same drugs as his teammate, but Betsy suspects that he's lying, and she's right. Frankie was doping with Lance just a few months ago. Betsy knows that this hospital room confession will change her relationship with Lance forever. She might be shocked, but for Lance, cheating is just like riding a bike.
16:01 Scaachi Koul? Lance's cancer recovery is brutal, but after just a few months, he gets a clean bill of health. In January 1997, he's declared cancer-free. And though he tries to get back to racing, his team is worried about his performance. They restructure his contract to give themselves the option to cut Lance loose, which Lance hates. Even though he gets back on the bike, they drop him over the summer. Luckily, Lance finds a scrappy team willing to take a chance on him. It's sponsored by the US Postal Service. Lance knows he probably won't be competitive for the next year, but he calls his old friend Mikayla anyway and quickly gets back on EPO. He seems more mellow and less angry. He's even settled down and gotten engaged to a woman he met during his recovery.
16:46 Scaachi Koul? They get a kitten and they name it Chemo. In March 1998, two months before the wedding, Lance has one of his first big comeback races. He's pretty confident about this one. But even with EPO, he performs terribly, and he's told to help another racer on his team win rather than going for it himself. Lance ignores his coaches. He quits the race and he decides to move back to Austin. He lays around, drinks margaritas and plays a lot of golf. And he does some soul searching. He doesn't need racing. He could just focus on Liv Strong, his new cancer charity. But after a few weeks, he realizes he can't be chill. He decides to recommit to racing with a new motivation. Spite.
17:31 Scaachi Koul? Lance wants to stick it to Terry, to the team that dropped him, to everyone who thought he was down and out. Beating cancer is great and everything, but Lance really wants to get back at anyone who has ever pissed him off.
17:44 Sarah Hagi? You know, I do think spite is a great motivator, but for someone like Lance, who has a dark spirit, in my opinion.
17:51 Scaachi Koul? Yes.
17:52 Sarah Hagi? I really think that is a scary motivator.
17:56 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, I also recommend spite to most people, but Lance has a dark passenger that is taking over, clearly.
18:02 Sarah Hagi? Yeah, he's a villain in his own life and now he's fueled by spite from people who are like, dude, you aren't doing OK.
18:08 Scaachi Koul? Yeah. But with Michaela's careful oversight, Lance trains harder than ever. He thinks that his cancer treatment has actually made him an even better racer by forcing him to lose unnecessary muscle. And he decides that in order to take advantage, he needs a better team around him, a team that's even more committed to doping. Lance takes on a new leadership role with the USPS team. He pushes them to get a new manager and he also helps them find a new team doctor. Apparently, the old doctor wasn't aggressive enough about pushing drugs on the cyclists. Lance was so frustrated at the doctor's stinginess, he had his wife go around distributing cortisone tablets to his teammates. The new doctor is more than happy to give the racers the drugs Lance thinks that they all need.
18:54 Scaachi Koul? With his new team assembled, Lance keeps his eye on the prize, winning the 1999 Tour de France. The tour is a brutal race. It lasts for just over three weeks. The course changes every year, but it covers about 3,600 kilometers, spread out over 20 stages. They're basically biking from New York to Vegas. Racers get rest days and stay at hotels every night, but they're riding between four to seven hours each day for three weeks straight. And that year, Lance shocks the racing world by winning the first stage. His new approach to doping works, but it is risky. Last year, one of the best teams in the tour had their supply of EPO confiscated. It was a huge scandal. Between the investigation, the hearings, and the subsequent suspensions,
19:39 Scaachi Koul? the players were all functionally banned from professional cycling for more than a year. The team physiotherapist, who tried to transport the drugs, even faced criminal charges. So now Lance and his teammates have to cover up their syringe bruises. They have their team masseuse secretly transport the drug supply, and they hide the used syringes in soda cans. They also hire a guy to deliver the drugs on a motorcycle. He's a friend's gardener, and everyone calls him Motoman. The media is already on alert, so they're very suspicious of Lance's unlikely dominant performance. At the first press conference during the tour, a reporter straight up asks him if he's doping, and Lance denies it.
20:21 Scaachi Koul? But towards the end of the tour, it seems like his critics' suspicions are confirmed. Lance tests positive for cortisone, so he gets a doctor to secretly backdate a prescription for a cream for saddle sores to explain the test. The cycling authorities don't want another scandal, so they decide to believe him.
20:40 Sarah Hagi? Oh, wow. It's interesting who just gets to be believed like that. They're like, you know what? Easier to believe this guy and just pretend this is normal than to question anything.
20:51 Scaachi Koul? Some people are lucky like that, Sarah. Well, the cortisone incident is a near disaster, and the US Postal Team remains super cautious. They manage to keep the other drugs hidden, and Lance wins the Tour de France in record time. As he approaches the finish line at the Champs-Elysees in Paris, fans wave American and Texan flags. It's a beautiful moment, a cancer survivor making a historic comeback.
21:16 Scaachi Koul? Lance's win is front page news in the US. It sparks a moment of national pride in what had been an obscure sport, and he becomes a full-on superstar. Lance makes the cover of People Magazine, goes on Larry King Live and The Late Show with David Letterman, and visits the Clintons at the White House. But some in the press are still skeptical. There was a doping scandal just last year, and Lance is literally recovering from cancer. How is this possible? The concerns are easily drowned out because Lance Armstrong is becoming a pop culture phenomenon. He's about to sprint to the peak of global fame. And from there, the only place to go is downhill.
21:59 Speaker 07 Journalist Tristan Redmond goes where no son-in-law should ever go, deep into his wife's family history, digging up the cold case of who murdered her great-grandmother. Because, I should mention, he thinks the murderer might actually be the beloved family patriarch. For the best binge-watch series like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
22:19 Speaker 05 On January 24th, 2023, in Ducksbury, Massachusetts, Patrick Clancy called 911. He had found his wife Lindsay badly injured and his three children dead and dying. What followed would become one of the most searing and complicated cases in recent memory, raising hard questions about motherhood, mental illness, and how far our justice system will go to understand what really happened. I'm Candace DeLong, host of the podcast Killer Psyche. In our latest episode, we take you inside the case of Lindsay Clancy, the postpartum psychosis defense, the courtroom battle, and the trial that just ended in a stunning mistrial.
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23:28 Scaachi Koul? After that first Tour de France win, Lance goes on to win the next five tours in a row. By 2004, he's 32 years old and he's on top of the world. He's signed massive endorsement deals worth almost $10 million. His memoir, It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, has spent more than a year on the New York Times Bestseller list. Multiple US presidents have appeared with Lance for cancer initiatives, and those bright yellow Livestrong bracelets are everywhere. Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, and Bono, all friends of Lance, are wearing them. Lance isn't just a star in cycling. He's a full-on celebrity, and he's soaking it all up. He made a cameo in the Ben Stiller comedy Dodgeball. He left his wife, and he's now dating Sheryl Crow.
24:12 Scaachi Koul? If it makes you happy, you know? But even with all the fame and all the money, or maybe because of it, Lance is still doping. After 1999, cycling authorities developed a test to check for EPO. So Lance's team had to step up their cheating. They start injecting EPO at night so that it barely shows up on their daytime tests. And on top of that, they've started doing blood transfusions, which, just like EPO, increase blood oxygen capacity. Before the tour, team doctors draw two cups of blood from each rider. Then they reinject them with their own blood during the race. Of course, if you accidentally get another person's blood, you could die, so it's a big risk. But at this point, Lance's team is a doping machine,
24:56 Scaachi Koul? and he pressures them to do it. They even do transfusions in front of Sheryl. He tells her that all the other cyclists are doing it too.
25:05 Scaachi Koul? And the reality is, fame, wealth, and consistent success have turned Lance from a brazen asshole into a total control freak monster. His behavior is plenty bad off of his bike, but he might be even worse when he's riding one. Towards the end of the 2004 Tour de France, Lance gets passed by an Italian rider. Lance has a four-minute lead overall, so he isn't worried. But he does have a petty score to settle with this dude. The rider got busted for doping a couple of years back, and he recently testified against McHale. Lance took this as a betrayal. He called the guy a liar in the press. But he's still pissed. Lance tells his teammates not to follow him, and he pedals hard to catch up to the Italian rider. He starts ruthlessly mocking him.
25:50 Scaachi Koul? He puts his hand on the Italian's back and shit talks him. In Italian. Sarah, can you read this translation?
25:57 Sarah Hagi? He says, "You made a big mistake. You shouldn't have testified against McHale, and especially not sued me for defamation. I have no problems. I have time. I have money. And I can destroy you whenever I want."
26:10 Scaachi Koul? Holy crap, that is so scary. This isn't life or death. This is a sport. It's, yes, very impressive. He's so talented. But if your talent hinges so hard on all of these things, what is the point? Like, why? Why do you want to live such a stressful and evil life? Well, the other riders are shocked too, as Lance grins ear to ear while bullying this guy. The Italian retreats and moves to the back of the pack. This mid-race dust-up is even picked up by TV cameras. Lance, directly in front of a camera, moves his hands to his lips, makes a zipped lips motion, and pretends to throw away the key. His behavior raises some questions with the cycling press.
26:54 Scaachi Koul? But ultimately, nothing comes of it. Lance wins his sixth consecutive Tour de France and becomes the favorite to win a record-breaking seventh time the following year. No other racers can touch him. Lance has ridden decades of grievances and beefs to total domination and steamrolled tons of friends and teammates. Now, he has just one task: making sure they all keep their mouths shut.
27:21 Scaachi Koul? In July 2005, Lance wins his seventh Tour de France. As predicted. He's handed a mic after his win. It's the first time any Tour winner has had the opportunity to give a speech like this. So of course, Lance decides to address his haters.
27:37 Speaker 03 And finally, the last thing I'll say for the people that don't believe in cycling: the cynics and the skeptics. I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry you can't train big. And I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. This is a hard sporting event, and hard work wins it.
27:51 Sarah Hagi? This is his seventh Tour de France. Who's the villain? Like, I just don't understand who he's addressing. Like, you're winning. You did it. You got away with it. Like, why are you still the underdog in this story?
28:04 Scaachi Koul? Well, Lance actually retires from cycling after this record-smashing achievement. So his biggest priority becomes protecting his legacy. In 2004, a cycling journalist published a book in France that accused Lance of doping. The book had credible sources, including Lance's friend Betsy and his former masseuse, the one who snuck him drugs during the tour. In October 2005, Lance faces off with Betsy in a conference room near Detroit, Michigan. They're not fighting about the book, though. The insurance company that covered Lance's cycling bonuses for his tour wins thinks that Lance cheated, and they don't want to pay up. They've asked Betsy to give a deposition confirming Lance's doping, and Lance is here to intimidate her. As she tells the story of Lance's hospital-room confession, he stares daggers at her.
28:49 Scaachi Koul? Right after the deposition, Lance leaves for New York. He appears in an episode of Saturday Night Live with Sheryl, and he makes a joke about testing his urine for drugs.
29:00 Sarah Hagi? Oh, shut up.
29:01 Scaachi Koul? Well, Sarah, you're about to hate him more. Because a few days later, when Lance is deposed, he goes on the offensive and he paints Betsy as unstable. This is also when he calls his former masseuse a whore. The following year, Lance's attacks and denials pay off. The insurance company is forced to settle and pay him $7.5 million. At this point, Lance must be feeling absolutely untouchable. He goes on jogs to soak up the sun with Matthew McConaughey, films cameos in the cinematic classic You, Me & Dupree, and he breaks up with Sheryl Crow. He starts going out with celebrities like Tori Burch, Ashley Olsen, and Kate Hudson. But Lance doesn't know that there is another threat to his dominance. And this isn't just one of his old friends.
29:46 Scaachi Koul? It's his own teammate.
29:50 Scaachi Koul? A year after Lance's retirement, Floyd Landis wins the Tour de France. Floyd looks like a Mennonite turned cycling pro. He's pale, redheaded, and has a thin goatee. Floyd was on a team with Lance from 2002 to 2004, and often played second fiddle. So this win feels like a dream. But immediately after he's crowned champion, Floyd tests positive for artificially high levels of testosterone. He quickly holds a press conference to deny cheating, but it's a disaster. Here's a clip.
30:19 Speaker 02 I declare convincingly and categorically that my winning the Tour de France has been exclusively due to many years of training and my complete devotion to cycling.
30:29 Scaachi Koul? OK, listen. If you're gonna go and deny something, do it with your whole chest. Don't be stumbling around, mumbling your words. At the very least, Lance is an effective communicator of his "innocence." You know what I mean? Correct. Floyd is just a bad liar. His delivery is stilted and fumbling. But 15 minutes after the press conference, he gets some helpful advice from a pro, his former teammate Lance. Floyd and Lance hadn't kept in touch, but Lance calls him and says, "Look, when people ask if you've ever used performance-enhancing drugs, you need to say absolutely not." Floyd must feel conflicted about getting this advice from Lance. He used to bully Floyd all the time when they were teammates.
31:13 Scaachi Koul? And Floyd suspects that Lance is only calling him now to try and protect himself. If the authorities start digging into Floyd's cheating, they might uncover the entire years-long scheme that made Lance famous. Floyd is forced into arbitration to fight the doping allegations, which lasts for several months. He spends $2 million on his own defense. But it doesn't work. In September 2007, he's barred from pro cycling for two years. He's the first Tour de France winner to be stripped of his title in over a century. Floyd sinks into a deep depression and develops a nasty bin-shrinking habit. At one point, he falls off a ladder and breaks several bones. That gets him hooked on painkillers, and he spirals even deeper. At his lowest point,
31:58 Scaachi Koul? he starts downing up to a fifth of Jack Daniels and 15 pills a day. And then, to add insult to injury, Lance announces he's coming out of retirement. When Floyd's ban is up in 2009, he tries to join Lance's team for the Tour, but the team's manager says that Floyd is too toxic.
32:17 Sarah Hagi? I do feel for him. I know he cheated, but he fell so quickly and now he has to watch the real villain of his sport try and make a comeback?
32:26 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, Floyd is angry. I mean Lance doped as well. Why is he the one who has to take the fall? So, in April 2010, he writes an email to the head of US Cycling, providing a step-by-step overview of the team's doping program. And he names names, including Lance. Then, in an interview with ESPN, Floyd finally admits to doping publicly. He says, quote, "I want to clear my conscience. I don't want to be a part of the problem anymore." But it'll take more than a whistleblower to take Lance down.
32:59 Scaachi Koul? Lots of people in pro cycling are shocked by Floyd's confession, but not Travis Tigert. Travis is 39, with a stern but friendly face and short hair with a pronounced widow's peak. He's been the head of the US Anti-Doping Agency, or USADA, for a few years now. He pleaded with Floyd to come clean back in 2008. And Floyd actually reached out to Travis before sending his whistleblowing email. So Travis has been excited about the chance to finally expose Lance. Travis is serious and humble, and he believes in playing by the rules. He's a devout Christian, and he used to be an athlete and a coach. And he wants the sport he loves to thrive. Travis especially hates that Lance cheated while on a team funded by the US Postal Service,
33:43 Scaachi Koul? which got tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers.
33:46 Sarah Hagi? Oh, wow. That is just another layer I did not even realize.
33:50 Scaachi Koul? Yeah. Well, Travis contacts a no-nonsense investigator with the FDA who has brought doping cases against famous athletes like baseball icon Barry Bonds and Olympic sprinter Marion Jones. And this guy kickstarts an investigation with the FBI and the Department of Justice. The prosecutor interviews Lance's former teammates and offers them immunity if they'll testify against Lance. And they take the deal. Meanwhile, Floyd files a lawsuit alleging that Lance defrauded the government since his team was funded by the Postal Service. The government has the option to join this lawsuit, but thus far, they haven't taken it.
34:26 Scaachi Koul? Travis is looking forward to seeing the prosecutor bring Lance down. But in February 2012, about two years after Floyd's confession, the Justice Department makes a shocking announcement. They're dropping the investigation against Lance. They don't explain why, but Travis thinks that the Obama administration might be afraid to pursue such a controversial case during an election year. But it doesn't matter because Travis is there to pick up the pieces. His agency can't pursue criminal charges like the DOJ can, but they are able to ban Lance from the sport for doping. And if they can reveal the truth, other people might start holding Lance accountable. Travis contacts the cyclists who cooperated with the Justice Department's investigation, and they all agree to talk to him.
35:09 Scaachi Koul? He also interviews Betsy and the masseuse. The stories he hears are horrifying. Some described the US team atmosphere like being part of the mob. They had a code of silence, and Lance acted like an enforcer to maintain order. Travis tells The Guardian that one case in particular stood out to him: a young cyclist who grew up in an abusive home where his dad sold drugs. Sarah, can you read this quote?
35:32 Sarah Hagi? Yeah, it says, "He ran to cycling to escape, only to find out a few years later he'd been pulled back into the very thing he was trying to get away from. I knew, and our board knew, we couldn't let that sit idle." Oh my gosh, that is so sad. It's hard to be at the top of any sport and to be on like an official team. And I can't imagine how hard it is for someone who grew up that way.
35:54 Scaachi Koul? Well, the witness testimony paints a damning portrait of Lance as a bully and a cheat. Travis's agency tells Lance about their investigation, and Lance responds by immediately leaking the letter to the media. He refuses to meet with them and sues them, claiming their arbitration process infringes on his due process rights. He tries to get a judge to stop the investigation, but the suit is dismissed. The USADA investigation continues through the summer of 2012, and the evidence they compile is overwhelming. They find that Lance used a whole host of banned substances, including EPO, blood transfusions, and testosterone, along with masking agents. Most damningly, they find that Lance participated in a, quote, "sophisticated scheme and conspiracy to dope,
36:38 Scaachi Koul? encourage and assist others to dope, and cover up rule violations." In August 2012, they put out a thousand-page dossier detailing their investigation. They announced that Lance is stripped of all seven of his cycling titles and is banned from cycling for life. Lance was given the chance to testify or formally challenge their findings at several points during their investigation, but he refused. So now, he can't do much beyond grandstanding. He maintains his innocence but decides not to challenge USADA's decision. He says this isn't an admission of guilt, but rather a protest of an unfair process. Travis is relieved that some justice has been served and that Lance's ride might finally be over.
37:27 Speaker 04 A trucker merges onto the I-10 in New Orleans. He checks his mirrors. The lane is clear. And then, boom, impact. A pickup truck, seemingly out of nowhere, scrapes down the side of his 18-wheeler, multiple passengers inside. One man flees the scene, and the driver of the pickup, he doesn't seem all that upset. It didn't feel like a regular accident, because it wasn't. Across the city, truckers are getting sideswiped, all on the same stretch of the same freeway. And behind many of the cases is one person, a Hollywood stunt woman turned personal injury lawyer named Vanessa Moda. This podcast is a story about fake accidents that lead to real consequences and a scheme that ends in betrayal and murder.
38:12 Speaker 04 Listen to Over My Dead Body: Operation Sideswipe wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
38:27 Speaker 07 Hey, I'm Cassie DePecce, the host of Against the Odds from Audible Originals. In each episode, we share thrilling true stories of survival, putting you in the shoes of the people who lived to tell the tale. In our latest series, we track the story of Hugh Glass, the real-life revenant that inspired the 2015 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1823, Glass was brutally mauled by a grizzly bear in present-day South Dakota and left for dead. His survival depended on trekking through 350 miles of wilderness alone with grave injuries. But he was driven by his thirst for revenge. Follow Against the Odds wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Against the Odds early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
39:13 Scaachi Koul? Through October 2012, Betsy witnesses the fall of an empire. Lance gets dropped by eight sponsors in a single day, losing deals with companies like Nike, Anheuser-Busch, Trek Bicycles, and Jero helmets. Forbes estimates that Lance loses over $150 million in future earnings. He also has to step down from Livestrong. Betsy must feel vindicated, but how could she forget his asshole behavior at his depositions? And his refusal to admit the truth for so long? A month later, she sees Lance post a defiant photo of him lounging at home with his seven yellow Tour Championship jerseys framed on the wall.
39:56 Scaachi Koul? The caption reads, "Back in Austin, just laying around."
40:01 Sarah Hagi? Okay, Lance, it's so divorced guy energy. It is also like, earlier on, when he was being really arrogant and annoying in this way, he was considered like a winner and a legend and one of the best cyclists in the world. But now he's not, and he just looks like a full-on loser to everyone.
40:19 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, he does seem like a loser. But around Christmas time, Betsy gets a surprising phone call from Lance. And this time, all the bluster and ego are seemingly gone. He says he wants to talk to her and Frankie. He apologizes, and over the next 40 minutes, he actually sounds heartfelt and remorseful. Here's Betsy talking about the call in the documentary, "The Armstrong Lie." I still get emotional. It was, it was, it took a lot of courage for him to say he was sorry. And for him to tell me he's done a lot of bad things to good people. Betsy is probably hoping that her horrible saga with Lance is coming to an end. But weeks later, she sees Lance on Oprah,
41:01 Scaachi Koul? and he does finally publicly confess to using drugs. But something is off. He doesn't seem as apologetic as he did on the phone. Lance says he was clean for his 2009 comeback, which Betsy knows is a lie. And when asked about the fateful day in the hospital almost 15 years ago, when Betsy witnessed him confess to using drugs, she freezes, because here's what he says.
41:24 Speaker 02 Was Betsy telling the truth about the Indiana Hospital?
41:27 Speaker 03 Uh, I'm not gonna take that on. And I'm laying down on that one.
41:32 Speaker 02 Was Betsy lying?
41:34 Speaker 03 Um, I'm just not...
41:39 Sarah Hagi? Yeah, I mean, I really do think this is very typical of him. Like, I don't know if I would have expected better if I was Betsy, but I can understand having hope for someone you once loved, you know?
41:50 Scaachi Koul? Yes, exactly. Lance tells Oprah that he called Betsy to apologize, and she didn't want him to talk about the hospital room confession. That's another lie. And it gets weirder. When Oprah challenges him on his past statements calling Betsy crazy, Lance tries humor.
42:07 Speaker 03 I think she'd be OK with me saying this, but I'm gonna take the liberty to say it. And I said, "Listen, I called you crazy. I called you a bitch. I called you all these things, but I never called you fat."
42:19 Sarah Hagi? This is really just such a crazy response to think, one, this is a joke worth making, but also, there is no world where Lance Armstrong answers a question the way he's supposed to and is suddenly humbled and is like, "OK, you know what? All that terrible stuff is behind me. This is who I am now." It's like, it's not even that, you know? He's just so arrogant through and through.
42:44 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, he's a jerk. And Betsy is stunned and furious. So to correct the record, she appears on CNN later that night, talking to Anderson Cooper. She's on the verge of tears, and she says, You owed it to me, Lance, and you dropped the ball after what you've done to me, what you've done to my family, and you couldn't own up to it. And now we're supposed to believe you? Even at the very end, Lance refuses to lose.
43:13 Scaachi Koul? More than a decade after his Oprah confession, Lance is about to face another moment of truth. It's 2023, and he's dressed in a space suit and seated next to modern family actress Ariel Winter and former Boston Celtic star Paul Pierce. They're all contestants on the Fox reality show Stars on Mars, where celebrities compete with each other on a set designed to simulate life on Mars. Weirdly, this is kind of a nice change of pace for Lance. He's spent a lot of the past 10 years settling lawsuits, including paying the US government $5 million. The government had eventually joined Floyd's lawsuit, and because he blew the whistle on the whole scheme, just over $1 million of the settlement goes to Floyd.
43:54 Sarah Hagi? I mean, at least Floyd gets something. He still is a cheater, but he did the right thing here.
44:00 Scaachi Koul? Yes. Well, other than that, Lance has appeared in a few documentaries about his life and his cheating. He comes across as an asshole in all of them, so you won't be shocked to find out that he doesn't look great on Stars on Mars either. So far on the show, he's butted heads with everyone from veritable nasty girl Tanashi to former NFL star slash my second husband Marshawn Lynch to former wrestler and MMA fighter Ronda Rousey. Lance had the audacity to make critical statements about trans athletes when he's the one who spent years abusing hormones. He alienates most of the other contestants and he ends up quitting the show. Even on Fake Mars, Lance can't get along with other people.
44:42 Scaachi Koul? These days, Lance hosts a popular cycling podcast and he lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and his kids. Floyd started a medical marijuana shop specializing in former athletes seeking treatment, and he briefly funded a cycling team with cash he got from the whistleblower payout. Betsy and Frankie are still married and live in Michigan. Frankie is still active in cycling, and Travis is still the CEO of the USADA. No American athlete has won the Tour de France since 2006, and no American has regained their legit yellow jersey status since Greg LeMond in the 1980s. And while cycling is supposed to be a cleaner sport these days, the most recent Tour winners have had the fastest average times on record.
45:26 Scaachi Koul? Sarah, is this our most detestable scammer? We've covered people before who have probably done worse crimes, but Lance is like the most unlikable person we've ever talked about, which is crazy because he's like a real celebrity.
45:39 Sarah Hagi? I think in a way, it's like he just had to find an outlet for his evil, and it happened to be cycling.
45:47 Scaachi Koul? Do you think that he wanted to get caught on some level, or was he just that arrogant? Because it seemed like he was barely trying to hide this.
45:55 Sarah Hagi? I think he was just arrogant. I don't think he was trying to be caught, and like, he would probably maintain to this day that he was... Is mostly innocent. I feel like someone who wants to be caught and is in over their head, there's a moment of relief for them almost when like they're figured out. And he just kept mildly doubling down.
46:16 Scaachi Koul? Do you think that you could get away with doping? If somebody was like, hey, Sachi, you were like really fast. Sort of in the same way if somebody comes up to me and they're like, I like your outfit. My response is, oh, my God, thanks. It was $4. Here's this exact store where I got it from. And I feel like I would just tell people I was doping. I'd be like, oh, you think I'm fast? Thanks. I've been taking human growth hormone. Let me show you exactly how I do it.
46:37 Sarah Hagi? Yeah, there's no universe where I want something that badly, first of all. I'm not putting my body through any kind of trouble for a result. And I think also, I truly believe he doesn't think he did anything really that wrong.
46:53 Scaachi Koul? Yeah.
46:53 Sarah Hagi? I'm sure a lot of athletes do different things to enhance their performance. I don't think that's really a huge secret. But I think it's the level and the arrogance that really sets him apart from other people. And that he hasn't been shamed into hiding away on like a farm somewhere. And that he's still around and has a podcast is crazy to me.
47:17 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, I mean, honestly, shame on us for trying to get into a cyclist. Like, sports people are kind of the worst.
47:22 Sarah Hagi? Yeah, but we've covered athletes and sports. And like Tom Brady is a saint compared to this guy. You know, he's an honorable man compared to Lance Armstrong.
47:34 Scaachi Koul? OK, so that's the lesson. If you're gonna be in sports and you're gonna be worthless, stand next to Lance Armstrong because you're gonna look great. But isn't it nice to be surprised sometimes that you can still be disappointed?
47:45 Sarah Hagi? It is nice. I never really thought about him before today. And now I'm his number one hater.
47:51 Scaachi Koul? That's what I like to hear. Can you imagine Lance Armstrong as a Peloton instructor?
47:55 Sarah Hagi? He would kill at it.
47:56 Scaachi Koul? He would kill.
47:57 Sarah Hagi? That's the safe distance he needs from people. On a screen, being edited, but scaring them to death.
48:03 Scaachi Koul? It's a great place for somebody to call me a whore. I would actually allow my Peloton instructor to say that to me.
48:08 Sarah Hagi? He'd be like, you know what? I didn't call you fat yet.
48:11 Scaachi Koul? Straight up, yeah, I'd be like, you know what? You didn't. And that's why I come here every week, Lance.
48:19 Scaachi Koul? Follow Scamfluencers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free by joining Audible.
48:29 Scaachi Koul? This is Lance Armstrong: Tour de Fraud. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Haggie. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at [email protected] . We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Wheel Men: Lance Armstrong, The Tour de France, and The Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell, as well as the ESPN documentary Lance, Alex Gibney's The Armstrong Lie, and Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story. Josh Terry wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Haggie. Eric Thurm is our story editor. Fact checking by Sarah Baum. Sound design by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapia.
49:14 Scaachi Koul? Our music supervisor is Skof Alaskas for Frieze on Sync. Our managing producers are Desi Blaylock and Matt Gant. Janine Cornolo and Stephanie Jens are development producers. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Lexi Peery. Our producers are John Reed, Yasmin Ward, and Kate Young. Our senior producers are Ginny Bloom and Sarah Annie. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer-Beckman, Marsha Louis, and Erin O'Flaherty. For Wondery.
49:48 Speaker 05 I'm Gemma Whelan. And in the new season of The Spy Who, we tell the story of the original femme fatale, The Spy Who Was Mata Hari. A famous dancer turned World War I secret agent, accused of seducing Allied officers to uncover their plans. But was she a temptress or a scapegoat for French failures? Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Was Mata Hari early and ad-free on Audible.
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